Fuel-feeding apparatus.



PATBNTEIS SEPT. 1a, 190e.

J., CRAWFORD. FUEL PB BDING APPARATUS. i

ArPLIoATron rmzn mm1?. 1965.y

Z SHEETS-SHEET 1.A

'll www? PATENTED SEPT. 18, 1906.

J. CRAWFORD.

FUEL PEEDING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG,17, 1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

JOHN CRAl/VFRD, F SEATTLE, WASHINGTON FUELvFEEDlNG: APPARATUSSpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. i8, 1906.

pplicatiou led August 17, 1905. Serial No. 274,585.

To ai?, whom t may' concern:

Be it known that l, JOHN CRAWFORD, a citizen of the United States,residing at Seattle, in the county of King and State of Washington, have.invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fuel-Feeding Apparatus;

and l do hereby declare the-following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same, reference bping had to the accompanying EOdrawings, forming a part of this specification,

and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The present invention relates to apparatus for feeding fuel to furnaces,land more especially to apparatus for continuously feeding relativelyfine and cheap grades of fuel, as

pea7 buckwheat, or screenings of coal, al-

,though the apparatus is well adapted for feeding fuel of higher grades,especially where the fuel isreduced to a small'size, eitherintentionally or by reason of previous handling.

The object of the invention is to improve the apparatus or appliances bywhich the fuel is fed into the furnace and distributed over the grate,whereby a more even distribution is secured and a more thorough andeffective commingling ofthe fuel with the oxygen-supplying fluid iseffected without the necessity of employing mechanical means foreffecting the admiXture and projecting the fuel into the furnace.

The invention consists, primarily, in a pair of hinged or pivoteddistributers adapted to be` oscillated vertically about their axes insubstantial parallelisrnand between which the fuel isadmitted inposition to be ejected by an impelling medium-such, for instance,

as air under pressure, ordinary steam, or-

superheated steam.

The invention further consists in the employment of distributing meansmovable to direct the fuel nearer to or farther from the front of thefurnace in connection with a spreader or duct foradmitting superheatedsteam or other elastic medium under pressure,

distributing means, whereby it will eect the projection of the fuel at asubstantially uniform anglewith relation to the distributing means.

` The invention` further consists in a. distributing means for the fuelinconnection with a spreader for admitting steam or elastic medium underpressure, said spreader having its discharging-apertures extendingaround the fuel-supply passage from side to said spreader being movablewith theA side, whereby the fuel will be projected by said medium inradial lines.

The'invention further consists in certain novel details of constructionand combinations and arrangements of parts, all as will be 6ohereinafter described, and pointed out particularly in the appendedclaims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings,

Figure l is a front elevation of a portion of a steam-boiler furnaceembodying the present improvements. Fig. 2 is a vertical section, partlyin elevation, of the structure illustrated in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detailplan view of the lower distributer-plate, showing the preferredarrangement of spreader. Figs. 4 7o and 5 are views similar to Fig. 3,showing modified arrangements of the injector-pipe or g spreader. Figs.6 and 7 are detail vertical sections showing a modification of thedistributer mechanism.

Like letters in the several figures indicate the same parts.

The furnace itself may be of any'preferred or well-known construction,and consequenly it is not deemed necessary to illustrate details ofconstruction. In said drawings, however, the front plate A of thefurnace is shown, together with a small section of one of thegrate-,bars B and transverse bearer C and a portion of theIboiler-setting D. The front plate A of the furnace is, as usual,provided with a door a for the and a door a for the ash-pit.

The furnace-door is preferably of such size' as to ill only the lowerportion of the open- 9o ing usually provided for feeding fuel to thefurnace, the portion of such opening above the door o; being filled orclosed by plates having a fuel opening therein through which the fuel tobe handled by the feeding mechanism enters the furnace. As illustrated,the immediate opening for the admission of the fuel is formed in a plateor plates E E bol-ted to the front of the furnace at the top of saiddoor-opening, so as to be conmo veniently and easily removed or replacedshould occasion require. The ,fuel-opening lmay be formed between theplates E E for which purpose the 'upper edge of the lower plate isvpreferably notched, and outside of the opening o formed an evener-plateF is secured. lhis evener-plate forms the outlet of a' chute G, throughwhich the fuel drops by gravity or is drawn by the distributingmechanism hereinafter described, and rio whereby the evener may betipped or angularly adjusted, so as to permit the fuel to enter at theproper transverse angle to effect even distribution. Thus if it be foundthat more than a due proportion of the fuel is feeding tothe right orleft hand side of the furnace 'the evener is adjusted to overcome thedifficulty. The chute G is usually made.

1n two or more sections, like a stove-pipe, only fla' ter, so as to beeasily removed or examined, andthe evener may have a rim or lip to whichthe chuteis fastened by rivets or otherwise.

Within the furnace and in position to re- I' ceive the fuel passing inthrough' the front plate is a distributer, which in the preferredconstruction is formed, essentially, of two distributer-plates H and H',pivotally mounted at orl near their front edges and so connected as toswing vertically while maintaining their substantial parallelism,whereby the fuel entering between them may be directed toward the frontor rear portion of the fur- 'nace,land thus .an even distribution .ofthe fuel from front to reary be effected. As illustrated,fthedistributer-plate H is rovided" with" arms h, one at each side, whicproject through' slots between the front plates E and v Eand areprovided with notches or recesses adapted totake a bearing on the edge hof the plate E-toconstitute the pivotal supportsfor'the-distributer-plate. The arms project in front of the furnace inposition to coperate with mechanical appliances for imparting thevertical oscillatory movements t'o the distributer-plate, and in thepreferred construction the mechanical appliances consist of a pair ofcams I, mounted on a owerdriven shaft I journaled in brac ets i,

which may be attached to or form aninte-y gral part of ythefront plateE. The lower distributer-plate H is pivotally supported v byhook-shaped' bearings h2, which coperate with eyes or. loops h3 on theinner side of the front plate E, and the two distributer-,plates H and H.are connected 'for simultaneous movement by a link or other suitableconnection, such as indicated at K in Fig. 2, whereby vwhen thepower-driven shaft I is rotated the motion imparted to onedistributer-plate will be transmitted to the other and both f platesVwill be caused to swing in a vertical vplane, as shown clearly by thefull and dotted nes in the figure ofthe drawings last above referred to.

ZI-he fuel entering the furnace between the distributer-plates ispreferably projected over the grate-bars by a steam jet or jets adaptedto enter the furnace at a point below the entering fuel, so as to liftthe same and become thoroughly commingled therewith -during the passageof lthe fuel and steam beand consequently an even distribution may bemaintained with a substantially uniform movement of the distributer.

As shown, the lower distributer-plate H is provided with a fuel-suporting table H2, over which the fuel travefs) after it first enters thedistri-buter, and immediately around this fuel-supporting table H2 isthe spreaderduct Vfor admitting ste'am or elastic Huid under pressure,saidyduct beingextended from one side of the fuel-opening around saidsupporting-table to the opposite side. In Figs. 2 and 3 the duct isinthe form of a curved pipe L, having the jet-orifices arranged so as toproject the fuel radially from the fuel opening or table, as indicatedby the radial lines in Fi 3. By this arrangement of the injector uct thefuel may be admitted through a comparatively narrow aperture or anaperture much shorter thanfthe width of the furnace and at the same timebedistributed evenly to both sides as well as to the center of thefurnace. The supporting-table H2 is usually cast integral with the lowerdistributer-plate.

Obviously it is not essential vthat the injector-duct should extend in acurved line, inasmuch as a substantially radial projection of the fuelfrom the fuel-'opening may be secured by an angular arrangement of theduct, as shown, for instance, in Figs. 4 and 5, and hence I do not wishto be limited herein to the particular form of duct, although the radialarrangement'of the orifices is thought to be essential.

Obviously instead of operating both plates of the distributer byconnecting them together, as described said plates may be operateddirectly from the power connection. Thusv in Figs. 6 and 7 isillustrated an arrangement wherein the lower 'plate H is provided witharms M, extending through the lower front plate E and curved upwardly,so as to vbe depressed by the operating-cams. In

this form the arms M contact wlth the under vsides of the arms h, andthe cams operat,

ing on the arms h will cause the two plates of the distributer to beoscillat'ed in unison and .lOO

IOS I IZO ' line of furnaces.

. tance to permit of the effectual and ready permit of the use of a verysmall motor or enaeaiae e in substantial parallelism. T he distributerjplates may be varied from their parallelism by a set-screw i 2, passingup through each of the .lower arms near their ends till it bears uponthe under side of the upper arms, and the plates may beheld in place bysuitable stops-such, for instance, as the pins m. Y @bviously theoperating mechanism maybe made adustable in any well-known manner inorder to vary the throw of the distributer, and said distributer may bebalanced by weighting the arms in front or substantially balanced inorder to reduce the power required for operating the same and to ginefor operating the power-shaft of a long In setting the distributer it isdesirable that the two plates constituting the same should be spacedapart only a suflicient disprojection of the fuel from between the same,and at their ends nearest the front of the furnace the space should besuch that the action of the spreader-jet for admitting elastic fluidunder pressure will create a partial vacuum, which will operate to drawthe fuel in through the feed-opening and cause the same to advance overthe supporting-table of the. distributer into position to be acted on bythe elastic fluid issuing from the jet-orifices, and herein is theoflice of the set-screw, as before mentioned.

To increase the effect and give direction to the fuel, ribs or flangesare formed on the plates of the distributer-as shown, for instance, atN-where the upper plate is provided with depending ribs or flangesextending forwardly, but at the same timeleaving sufficient space at thesides of the distributer for the escape of fuel, lf the fuel strikes theside walls of the furnace, a straighter duct or fewer side jets areused;y vThe throw of the fuel is regulated by the steam-valve letting onmore or less force. The distributer-plates may have ribs to preventwarping, if necessary.

The power-shaft l may in addition to the cam l be provided with a pulley,0, from which a belt 0 may pass toca suitable elevator for raising thefuel from the bin and discharging' the same into the u per end of theduct or the hoppers or chute i.

In operation the fuel fed' to the hoppers passes down by gravity and isdrawn into the furnace through the feedopening in the front plate,passing thence into the distributer and forwardly over the spreader,which latter taking it on the fly through the action of the elasticfluid under pressure projects the fuel forwardly' out from between thetwo plates of the distributer and over the gratears of the furnace. Themovement of the distributor in 4'a vertical plane will distribute thecoal uniformlv from front to rear of the.

furnace, and by reason of the radial projection of the fuel by thespreader the sides of the furnace will be equally supplied.

Obviously any of the usual appliances einployed for regulating thefeeding of fuel from the hopper may be used in connection with thepresent invention, as well as any of the usual appliances forpreventino' the entry of air through the fuel-feeding orifice should thefuel itself fail to lill or block the passage or should such preventingbe necessary.

As illustrated in the drawings, the hopper for the fuel is located somedistance from the front of the furnace; but this is done in order toprevent confusion in the drawings, as in practice the .hopper is broughtin close to the furnace at its lower end and the connection between thehopper and the discharge-orifice correspondingly reduced in length,whereby the fuel will enter the furnace by gravity without the necessityof employing means other than the suction of the spreader for advancingthe fuel. The up er end of the chute or hopper G should be raced outfrom the front of the boiler ashort distance that the fuel may not dropperpendicularly, but slide down one side into the furnace, which thecurved shape of the pipe will permit it to do'. y

The distributer-plates and other parts of the invention may be kmade anylength, breadth, or shape to fit or accommodate the furnace to beequipped.

Having thus described my invention, what l claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-.

1. In an apparatus for feeding fuel to furnaces, the combination with adistributer, movable vertically, to direct the fuel toward the front orrear of the furnace, of a fuelsupply duct opening into said distributer,a power mechanism for moving the distributer and a spreader havingjet-orifices arranged to project the fuel radially from the distributer;substantially as described.

2. In an apparatus for feeding fuel to furnaces, the combination withthe fuel-supply duct and s reader having jet-orifices, of a distributeraving fuel-directing surfaces arranged above and below the fuel-supplyduct and spreader, and mechanical means for moving said distributer in avertical plane, to distribute the fuel from the front to the rear of thefurnace; substantially as de-l scribed.

3. ln an apparatus for feeding fuel to furnaces, the combination with afuel-supply duct, of a distributer having top and bottoni fuel-directingsurfaces, between which the supply-duct is adapted to discharge, meanslocated between the fuel-directing surfaces for projecting the fuel fromsaid distributor and means for imparting a vertical oscillatory movementto said distributor while the fuel is being projected therefrom for dis-"having-a duct for` discharging Ythe fu'el into the furnace, offadistributer having'top landbottorn Yfuel-directin surfaces between'thefu'ehenters't 'e furnace,- means for projecting'dthe' fuel from thedistributer em'-v 'dying radially arranged 'jet-orifices, and means forfirn' arting ya vertical oscillatory movement-.to te'distributer.,

5. Inanfapparatus for feedingfuel to furnace's,` the-'combination vwiththe ydistributer embodying'l 'top. and bottomy J plates -vhingedneartheir forward edges to oscillate in a Ver v tical planewand'y mehanicalmea-ns for oscillating said platea-of a fuel-'supplylk-duct`discharging-between the forward edgesvofsaid plate'sfand meanslocated-between'the v-dis-` tributer-pglates for projecting :the fuelfrom thedistrl uter while it 1s' being oscillated saidI meansembodying-an.- elasticlfluid-discharge tributary While maintaining thesubstantial parallelism of -the plates, of a--fuel-supply. ening 'intothe furnace betweeny the naces;-th%e`combination with the distributer-loric'ein 'proximity to` the "lower plate and 1 foyer whichthefuel-passes into the furnace.l

6. In 'anfappara'tus for "feeding fuel to furn'aces,v thecombinationwithl thefdistributer embodying-'topand bctfticm` plates' hinged neartheir forward edges to osc1llate in a Ver tical'v plane'v and-means Vforoscillating said disduct o forwar. *edges of thefplatesand 'a spreader`embodyingJdischargeeorifices for an elastic fluid under pressure andmoyable with the` distributer to maintain the 'angularzrelation betweenthe distributerfand yorifices during the-"oscillatien fof thedistrbuter.

7 .1 In an apparatus forfeeding fuel yto furenbodyinfg tcp and bottomplates hinged near their forward ledges-tc' osclllate in aver-y ticalplaneI -th'e lower plate embod inga fuelsup ortingtable; -an aspreader'aving v jetori ces forsupplying-elastic fluid under ressureYin-l'roximity to the edge of said tab e, of means or=oscillatingtlie saiddistributer and a' fuel-su ply-discharge duct openingv into said'distri'buter'.between-'their forward edges substantiallyy asdescribed.'v y

8.v In anI apparatus'for 'feedingffuel to furnaces,Athecombination'withv the distributer embodying' topf and'i bottom#plates hinged near their forward edges tol oscillate inaver'f ticalplane, a-ilcwer plate'embodyingith'e fueli ssl-Max f iices radia lyarranged Aaround said fuel-su porting table and means for oscillatingsaid. distributer, of a fuel-supply having-a duct forclischar ing fuelbetween said plates and over.y

described. l

9. Inan apparatus forfeed-ing fuel to furnaces, the. ,combination with.the distribnterembodying top zand. .bottom plates` hinged.A

tical plane, la duct for supplying. elastic fluid,

with said distributer and having radially-ar--` rangeddischarge-orifices, of.. a :fuel-supply.

scribed.

10. In an apparatus for feeding fuel to fur-` naces,- the f combination.with the ldistributer embodying' top and.A bottom4 plates hinged.A

tical. lane in unison operating-armsprojec ing t ough the support for.the plates, and. means located between the'plates-and movable.therewith. for projecting lthez'fuel fromy between the plates, of-apower-shaft. hai/ing operating-cams co eratlng with Asaid-farmstooscillate the distributer, and a fuel-sup ly hating a discharge-ductopening into theidlss tributar4 between .the top and bottom plat-,es`thereof substar-itiallyl as described.-

11. In an ap aratus for feeding fuel :tofu-rf: naces,` thel com inationwith thedistributer,

foradmitting the Afuel 'to the distributerand: adjustable angularly toraiseor lower oneend of theaperture with relation to .the other and;therebyvv control the lfuel fed-.1 to v the y sidesw efe the furnace;substantially as described.

12;- In lan .ap aratus vfor feeding fuel to fura. naces, the combination.withthe front-1 plate, having "an aperture vtherein and the)distributer: on the inner .side of said platefof a fuel-x supply7 andanevenery mounted on saidfront late, and having an aperture therein,.form- A lng-the dischar e-ductof the fuelsupply-said evenerbeing ajustable to raise or lower one. end ofthe aperture-:With relation totheother? andzthereby control'the-fuelrfed to the sides of.A the' yfurnacesubstantially asy described. v JOHN` CRATJVFORQD.-v

l Witnesses: v

NERISSAJ." STARK.; Hf O. MacDomiLn.`v

suppo'rtiny table, a spreader-havfingf-fjet-oriw-z.

the fue -supportrig table; substantial-ly as.-

underpressure mounted on and movable.

having its discharge Abetwee'ntlre .outer edges 'of thedistributer-plates; substantially-as dea;

near their forward edges to csclllate' in a vernear their forward edgeslto. oscillate ina :ver-.n-

of a fuel-supply duct-and Aan evener havingiaifl transverselyextendingdischarge,- aperture IOO

